I’m Miles Miller!

The moment of the week is no-doubt White Sox pitcher Mark Buehrle throwing a perfect game.  This is a remarkable achievement.  It’s interesting, because earlier in the week actually I was chatting with my dad about how overrated no-hitters are.  Sure, they are the about the best thing a pitcher can do.  But I contend that most of the time it says more about the opposing team than how good the pitcher really is.  It shows the pitcher had a flash of brilliance, not that the pitcher is great. 
Jonathan Sanchez (2-8) throws no-hitter against Padres, the worst hitting team in baseball.  Last year,  Carlos Zambrano throws no-no against worn-out Astros at a neutral site.  Jon Lester threw no-no against a Royals team that lost like 21 in a row.  Clay Buchholz tossed no-no in second career start against an Orioles team that had lost 9 of 10 (including one by like 30 runs).  Also in 2007, rookie Annibal Sanchez threw a no-hitter against Diamondbacks.  Sanchez has had 5 wins the last 3 seasons since.
Etc, etc.  Anyway, in my understanding, half of the pitchers who throw no hitters never make an All-Star team.  Meanwhile, the best pitchers in the league (Lincecum, Halladay, Santana, Sabathia, Beckett) have combined for zero no-hitters.
However, all that changed Friday with Mark Buehrle.  This game was remarkable in at least 3 ways:
1.  It was against the Rays, the defending AL Champs and a top hitting team in the league.
2.  The win brought the White Sox into a first-place tie with the Tigers.  It was an important game.
3.  He was an unheralded All-Star this season already (other than by Obama).
4.  It was Buehrle’s second no-hitter and second time facing the minimum 27.  He is very legit.

Grand slams:  My favorite story is all about Manny Being Manny.  On Manny Bobblehead Night in LA last Wednesday, Manny was hurt and not in the lineup.  But with bases loaded in a 2-2 tie in the 6th inning Joe Torre called Ramirez up as a pinch hitter, and he hit the first pitch he saw for a grand slam home run and they won 6-2.
Yesterday, National hitter Josh Willingham hit two grand slams in the same game.
Soriano hit a walk-off grand slam in the 13th inning for the Cubs in a division rivalry game against the Astros. 
In the bottom of the 8th inning, Fernando Tatis hit a game-winning pinch hit grand slam to help the Mets defeat the Rockies.  If I’m not mistaken, Tatis also hit two grand slams in the same game (same inning even maybe?) earlier in his career.

Streaking:  Look out, all you haters.  The Yankees have won 23 of their last 29 games and now have the best record in the American League.  The starting pitching has been outstanding, and they now have a super-solid bullpen with Rivera, Hughes, Aceves, and Phil Coke. 
The Phillies are on a roll, winning 18 of their last 21.
The Angels had won 15 of 18 before losing two this week.
The Cubs have won 9 of 11 and jumped into first place.
Meanwhile, the Padres are 4-20 in July and the once-promising Royals have lost 17 of their last 23.

Smoltz not being Smoltz:  The Red Sox picked up dinosaur John Smoltz in an effort to give them a boost for the second half of the season.  He has started six games, against the last place Nationals, Orioles  (twice), A’s, Royals, as well as the Rangers.  The Red Sox have lost 5 of his 6 games, only winning the KC game after scoring 15 runs, and have dropped out of first place. I don’t think this is what they had in mind.  Meanwhile, he’s up against Baltimore for the third time this Friday.

Moment of the week:  Jonathan Sanchez of the Giants pitched the first no-hitter of the year.  In fact, he was a teammate’s error away from a perfect game (no walks).   There’s a lot to this story.  Sanchez is one of the most unprobable candidates for a no-no.  He was demoted from the rotation last month after going 2-8 with a 5.50+ ERA and only got the start because Randy Johnson and his 300+ wins got placed on the DL.  Meanwhile, Sanchez’ gem was against the Padres, who managed only 3 hits the night before against Tim Lincecum (so they got 3 hits in 18 innings).  So this game probably says more about the Padres than Sanchez. 

Other quirky moments from the last couple weeks:

• Alan Embree of the Rockies got credit for a win without throwing a pitch.
• Joel Hanrahan got his first win of the season Thursday for the Nationals, even though he was at home as a member of the Pirates.
• John Smoltz’ first 3 starts this season were against last place Washington, Oakland, and Baltimore, going 0-2 with a 6.60 ERA.  His big stride on Saturday came against the Kansas City Royals. 
• Baltimore comes back from down 9 runs to beat the Red Sox 11-10.   The next day, Boston came back from 4 runs down to win 6-5.
• The Cardinals began an inning with the first 5 batters getting a single, double, triple, home run, and walk (not in that order, mind you). The next batter also singled.
• From the beginning of June through July 7, the Mets went 11-22, scoring one or fewer runs 13 times. Meanwhile, the other team from New York City went 13-2 from June 24-July 9. 
• It’s tough being in the AL East: Toronto lost 10 out of 13 in their recent stretch against the Yankees, Rays, and Orioles to drop 2 games under .500.
• The Angels swept the Yankees in Anaheim even though they were without their entire starting outfield.  On their recent home stretch, they fell behind by 4+ seven times and won four of those games.
• Last Saturday, Robinson Cano or Brett Gardner ended the first 9 innings for the Yankees.
• Jason Bay got on base 5 times on Sunday without a hit.
• Joe Mauer finished the first half going 0-9 in his last two games, lowering his average to .373.
• Michael Bourn of the Astros had 8 hits over the last week and scored 10 runs. 

With the announcement of the All Star Game starting lineups for baseball every year there is plenty of opportunity for criticism and reflection.  They have been tinkering with the system for a while and it’s kinda fun to watch the league’s attempts at helping the game be more enjoyable for everybody.  I can’t sleep right now, so here are my thoughts.

It appears that the overall focus of the game is to be for the fan. One of the first rules of the All Star game is that fans vote on the starting lineups.  This makes some people a little nervous as there is the potential for 7 Red Sox to get voted in to start, but overall the “fans” did a pretty good job picking this year.  All of the AL and NL spots lead their positions in some, if not most stats, except last year’s Derby hero Josh Hamilton and reigning MVP Dustin Pedroia. 

The next rule of the game is that each team gets an All Star representative.  This is an interesting rule with lots of opinions on both side.  This means that some undeserving players will get in instead of some more-deserving players.  But it also guarantees even those die-hard fans in Pittsburgh, Oakland, and Kansas City that their favorite player will at least get a chance to pinch-run and therefore the game is worth-watching.  This year that group includes Oakland’s closer Andrew Bailey, Oriole outfielder Adam (not-pacman) Jones, Reds’ closer Francisco Cordero, Cub hurler Ted Lilly, Astro SS Miguel Tejada, Nationals’ Ryan Zimmerman, and Pirate Freddy Sanchez. 

The newest thing is that fans get to vote for the last roster spot.  This tries to rectify one snub but usually results in a dumb pick.  Those “last chance candidates” are all very deserving this year, so it’s a shame 8 out of 10 of them won’t make it. 

(Rant time:)  The next thing is that the players (coaches too?) vote on next players and the coach completes the roster.  Here’s where the arguments come.  Why is Ryan Howard on the team as a 4th first baseman while Mark Reynolds (has more homers, runs, batting average, stolen bases, and is about equal in RBI as Howard) and Kung Fu Panda Pablo Sandoval are not, leaving just two third basemen on the team?  Where the heck is Ian Kinsler?  He’s got 20/17 HR/SB, 60/54 R/RBI (Pedroia’s sporting a 3/14 60/37).   Where is Miguel Cabrera, hitting .323 with 17 home runs?  And even catcher Benji Molina leads the other Molina and McCann in homers, runs, RBI and will be watching at home.  What about Brewer ace Yovani Gallardo has more strikeouts, lower ERA, lower WHIP and better winning percentage than Johan Santana, and strikeout, ERA, and WHIP advantages over All Stars Chad Billingsley and Jason Marquis, too.   Not to mention that he’s had a tough job replacing C.C. Sabathia, keeing the Brewers around the top of the NL Central.  And Josh Hamilton’s spot keeps out Shin-Soo Choo and Jermaine Dye, who are having a great first half of the season.

One of the other changes they have made to the game recently is to make it meaningful as the winning league gets home-field advantage in the World Series.  The game is more interesting to watch because it’s important.  I don’t know why it was changed and a lot of people think an exhibition game for fun shouldn’t have significance but hey, AL has won 12 years in a row and Phillies still won the World Series last year without homefield advantage so I don’t think it matters much.  And it definitely makes the game more intriguing.

Last rant:  it’s time to change the Home Run Derby.  Lots of players have fizzled out after their power display (i.e. Bobby Abreu and Josh Hamilton) and the steroid scandal has weakened the significance of the long bomb.  Why not throw in some new Skill Challenges, like a race around the bases, throwing hit the targets from the outfield, outfield wall vertical leap contest, or something else of the sort?  The Home Run Derby is boring.  Keep it, but not every single year. 

So for years I’ve been saying that the Yankees need to forget chasing guys like ARod, Giambi, Abreu, Randy Johnson, Pavano, Kevin Brown, Sabathia, Sheffield, Teixeira, Damon, Kei Igawa and Mussina, and go after my favorite pitcher in all of baseball, Roy Halladay.  The Yankees’ office has been great for catching big names has-beens and old pitchers in their 30’s who had a great year previously.  But all it’s done is throw a billion dollars in payroll in the last 6-7 years and no championships.  You have to get the right names, not the most recognizeable names. 

The greatest team ever was the 1998 New York Yankees, a team that won 114 games and then the World Series.  And who was on this team, A-Rod, Griffey, Bonds, Giambi, Canseco, Bagwell, Pujols?  No!  It was made of guys like Paul O’Neill, Tino Martinez, Scott Brosius, Chuck Knoblach, Chad Curtis, Bernie Williams, Jorge Posada, Derek Jeter.  You need winners, teammates, role-players and smart baseball; you don’t need an All-Star team to win games.  (Look at the Cowboys, Redskins, Angels with Mo Vaughn, Mets, and Yankees of the last decade.)

Anyway, mlb.com reports that Toronto GM J.P. Ricciardi says that the Jays are open to trade offers for Roy Halladay. “I’m not saying we’re going to shop him,  But… we’re [leaning] more toward listening than we’ve ever been.”  Doc Halladay will be a free agent after 2010, so the Jays have a little time to get something for him before he’s gone.  This is music to my ears!  Roy is no spring chicken, he is 32 years old, but this is a guy who has had an ERA under 3.30 in 7 of the last 9 seasons in the AL East and is getting better each year.  He’ll be just 33 at the end of the contract so the Yankees wouldn’t be investing $150M for a guy who will cash his checks when he’s 40.  Throw in Ian Kennedy, Phil Hughes, Melky, A-Rod (they would love him in Toronto haha), Kei Igawa, Chien-Ming Wang, or anybody else.  How much is two World Series worth? 

Sure, the Blue Jays sure don’t want to help Boston or New York and will try to avoid helping their rivals but hey: who needs him, who has the money, and who would give Roy the best chance to win?  He has the no-trade clause that he would have to be willing to waive so he won’t be going to San Diego or Pittsburgh. 

The point is: other than like Giant’s Tim Lincecum, there is no pitcher I’d rather have on my team for the next two seasons than Roy Halladay.